Grand jury to convene in Coatesville schools' scandal

Staff photo by Vinny Tennis ¬ ¬ The Benner Building is home to the offices of the Coatesville Area School District. The resignation of two top officials had some residents questioning at a recent meeting if they should have been terminated.

At least two Coatesville Area School District employees were subpoenaed Wednesday afternoon and ordered to appear before a Chester County Grand Jury next week, according to the pair’s attorney.

West Chester attorney Samuel Stretton told the Daily Local News Thursday that his two clients, Acting Assistant Superintendent Teresa Powell and Director of Technology Abdallah Hawa, were served with subpoenas at school district headquarters Wednesday afternoon.

Multiple other sources indicated that Acting Superintendent Angelo Romaniello was also issued a subpoena.

On Thursday Romaniello’s attorney, Robert J. Donatoni of West Chester, declined to confirm or deny that his client was issued a subpoena, but insisted that his client will continue to cooperate with any criminal investigation.

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“I was engaged by Dr. Romaniello some time ago to advise him on those matters that are outside of the responsibility of the school district’s solicitor,” Donatoni said. “Dr. Romaniello has always been willing to be cooperative with the district attorney’s investigation and will continue to do so in the future.”

Officials within the Chester County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment Thursday when asked about the existence of a grand jury investigation related to the Coatesville Area School District.

Stretton said his clients, along with several other district employees, were ordered to testify before a county grand jury at the Chester County Justice Center in West Chester late next week.

“My clients have been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury, as have several other people,” Stretton said.

The attorney also praised the District Attorney’s Office for conducting the grand jury investigation, arguing that he believes such an investigation is the only way to uncover “wrongdoings” in the district and allow the community to move forward.

“It’s good, I’m glad that they are doing this,” Stretton said. “It’s the only way to get the material necessary to uncover financial misconduct or any other misconduct and to allow people to speak on these wrongdoings without being intimidated.”

Powell and Hawa have found themselves at the center of controversy since the pair helped uncover the racist and sexist text messages exchanged on the district-issued cell phones of former Superintendent Richard Como and former Director of Athletics and Activities Jim Donato.

Hawa discovered the text message exchanges, which contained numerous racial slurs and derogatory statements about students and faculty, on Aug. 15 while performing a routine data transfer on Donato’s district-issued cell phone. He reported the messages to Powell, and together they brought the messages to school board member Dr. Tonya Thames Taylor and district solicitor James Ellison.

Hawa later sent transcripts of the text messages to the District Attorney’s Office after he and Powell became frustrated with the school board and district solicitor’s handling of the situation.

Both have said publicly that they feel some school board members and Ellison attempted to cover up the existence of the text messages and were prepared to allow the two administrators to remain in their positions.

The surfacing of the text messages led to public outrage after the Daily Local News printed excerpts of the transcripts on Sept. 22. In the weeks after, multiple school board members made public comments indicating the district never intended to make the existence of the messages public.

School board members and Ellison have repeatedly denied claims of an attempted cover-up and instead argued they proceeded with the best interest of the district in mind. The school board voted to accept Como’s and Donato’s resignations on Sept. 24, even after over 1000 people attended a public meeting to demand the board fire the pair instead.

Last week Stretton issued two letters to Coatesville Area School Board members accusing Ellison and Romaniello of harassing his two clients in retaliation for exposing the text messages. The attorney also claimed that his clients were relieved of many of their regular duties and that Hawa had his access to the district’s computer network restricted.

Ellison and school board members have repeatedly denied Stretton’s allegations of harassment and insisted that Hawa and Powell continue to play an integral role in district leadership.

The first letter was sent after Romaniello and Ellison demanded Hawa give up a list of passwords to the district’s computer network, according to Stretton. The attorney claimed that Hawa first resisted handing the passwords over after consulting with the District Attorney’s Office, but after he was threatened with insubordination he reluctantly gave them up.

According to Ellison, on Sept. 29 the district brought in a third party technology firm that specializes in data security, Reclamere, after learning that Hawa and Powell had retained legal counsel. District officials have maintained that Reclamere was hired to forensically image the district’s computer network in response to a potential lawsuit.

Stretton maintains that he has never informed the district of any plans to file a lawsuit on behalf of his clients.

After Stretton’s original allegations of harassment stemming from the dispute over access to the district’s computer network, District Attorney Tom Hogan clarified the directions his office gave to Hawa and warned the district not to take any action that could be perceived as witness intimidation or tampering with evidence.

“I informed Mr. Hawa that (the school district) was to preserve all of the electronic data for the district. This is a logical instruction that should have been provided district wide by (the district solicitor) as soon as he was made aware of the criminal investigation,” Hogan said. “If anybody tampers with evidence or intimidates witnesses in this criminal investigation, that person will be arrested and prosecuted. (The district) should be extremely careful not to make a bad situation even worse.”

It is unclear whether the pending grand jury investigation is related to a criminal investigation that predated the discovery of the text messages, or the district’s handling of its computer network in response to that criminal investigation.